So this topic is pulled off from the Newstrange thread, because a few posts in there started my mind turning over. Dowsing is completely unscientific, utterly ridiculous on the face of it, and little more than a 2-penny parlor trick. It's also worryingly effective.

I don't believe in magic, mysticism, or the unexplainable. I do believe I've seen a pagan friend hold his hand over a deck of cards and have one hop an inch or so into his palm. I also know that, in a fit of utter boredom many years ago, I floated a pin on water and concentrated on it really hard, until it began jerking and spinning.

I don't know but strongly suspect you've all got similar stories. So what's that all about?

Dowsing is completely unscientific, utterly ridiculous on the face of it, and little more than a 2-penny parlor trick

Couldn't have said it better myself.

It's also worryingly effective

Tell me about it. When my brother and I were kids my dad made a couple of rods out of coat hangers and we went tramping around the back garden looking for water. We got a consistent 'signal' in a line running from the house out across the yard. Looking at the house plans afterwards, it matched up exactly with the main drain.

I've tried to come up with any kind of rational explanation for this, and failed. The only even plausible one is my dad knowing where the drain was and having a laugh by subtly encouraging us to find it, but I can't recall any prompting on his part - we both spontaneously seemed to locate it without any encouragement.

I've tried dowsing for giggles and you can make the rods go wherever you want by tiny movements in your hands without making it look like you're doing anything. I chased a couple coworkers like that before, for giggles.

Reminds me of a time I was at Disneyland as a kid, and they had this guy dressed as Merlin doing a sword in the stone thing, and he basically finds the "chosen" kid by dowsing and the kid gets to pull the sword out. It was cute.